Tuesday Curatorial: Ecoagriculture for a sustainable future

Global food security relies on ecologically viable production systems, yet current agricultural practices often come into conflict with environmental sustainability. Finding a balance between the two is a major challenge, but we can learn from traditional food production systems that have been maintained for thousands of years.

Ecoagriculture for a Sustainable Future discusses the ecological history of food production in Australia. Hear how the first humans contributed to the collapse of the late Pleistocene, and how Aboriginal food systems were developed to thrive and sustain people and Country for at least 40,000 years, before eventually collapsing when European farming methods were imposed on bushlands. 

Today, industrialised agricultural systems across the world continue to use vast amounts of finite resources and cause destructive environmental change. We explore the damage from food and farming systems that don't suit the landscape, and why we must start thinking of food production as an ecological process if we want a sustainable future.

Presented by Dr Nicole Chalmer.

Dr Nicole Chalmer gained a Bachelor of Science and Graduate Diploma in Agribusiness before going farming for 30 years. She partnered in developing Coronet Hill at Esperance using ecological principles and perennial pastures for cattle production. Discontent concerning the social-ecological sustainability of modern farming led her to complete an environmental history PhD analysing sustainability of food production systems, from the deep past, colonialism and present